Six Weeks in Leicester, England

When we chose our home-base for our six weeks in England, we knew we wanted to stay in a city that was far enough away from London that we’d be able to relax, not being right in the center of a huge city. Leicester was the only place with an Airbnb cheap enough to fit our budget while still looking like it was in a decent area, so we went for it. Granted, we didn’t have many options and zero personal experience to help make our decision, but after the six weeks we spent there, I’m so glad we chose it for our home base.

✰✰✰

WHERE WE STAYED

In hindsight, we should have looked a bit closer at the sleeping options on the Airbnb listing before we booked the space. We knew it was going to be small, but when we got there and realized the couch didn’t even pull out into a bed, I definitely had some doubts. Those doubts were quickly squashed, though, when we got into our routine and realized what a great little place we had booked.

We stayed in a guesthouse in our hosts’ backyard, and it was a pretty private space despite the shared area. There was a large fish pond behind their flat and to the side of ours, surrounded by overgrown plants and looking messily yet comfortably lived in. We had to walk through their garage and past the backyard of their flat to get to our entrance, which made for some nice conversation with our hosts when we ran into each other every so often. The actual guesthouse was only two rooms: one living space downstairs with a small table, couch, tiny kitchen and the tiniest bathroom I’ve ever seen, and the upstairs bedroom with a small Juliet balcony and spiral staircase leading to the room. It didn’t leave us with much privacy between me and Amanda at all, but that’s just what you sign up for when you choose to change your lifestyle like we did.

I’ll link the Airbnb here so you can see what the space looked like–it wasn’t much, but it turned out to be a pretty great spot for us, if not only for the location and the company of our awesome hosts.

LEICESTER

Leicester is a university town, so the area is filled with a variety of things to do. From the park, to the shopping center, to the restaurants, to the train station ready to take you just about anywhere, there’s no shortage of places to go and things to see!

Queens Road

Our flat was on a road directly off of a main street called Queens Road, so we were able to walk everywhere we went. There were TONS of restaurants, cafes, and shops right on Queens Road, which made it a great little area to explore; we got to try out different coffee shops for breakfast, find comfy cafes to work in, and new restaurants to visit for dinner. There was a Sainsbury’s just a few minutes down the road, so when we decided to grocery shop instead of eat out at restaurants, it was super easy to walk to the store and grab what we needed. We found a couple favorite cafes, a great authentic Italian gelato shop, and some cute hidden gems under ten minutes from us–after a week or so, we definitely realized what a great spot we’d picked.

Victoria Park

Victoria Park is a huge public park right between where we stayed and the city center, so we walked through it almost every time we went to the train station or the shopping area–both were only about 30-40 minutes from us, which made for some great walks through the city. We’d pass people walking their dogs, sunbathing on blankets, riding bikes, and having picnics each time we walked through the park, and a few times, there were festivals or events happening that we stumbled upon or walked by. In August, a store owner told us about the Leicester Caribbean Carnival that was happening the next day, and we spent hours watching the parade, eating Caribbean food and filling up on rum cocktails. It was always busy, day and night, and aside from the extra large pigeons that were always lurking around or fighting in the trees, the park was a nice, peaceful spot to walk through amidst the city streets.

Highcross Leicester

We had to do some shopping during our downtime, of course, and luckily there was a huge indoor/outdoor shopping area just past the train station. It only took us about 35 minutes to walk there, and while walking along the main streets of Leicester wasn’t the most appealing route, eventually we found a much nicer path through some older, less crowded streets within the nearby university. Highcross is filled with your typical retail stores and restaurants, and we got a good mix of stores we were used to (H&M, Zara, Urban Outfitters) alongside typical UK brands (Superdry was my favorite).

There were also a TON of restaurants just within the Highcross area, and we found a few great spots while shopping that make up a good portion of my Leicester Food Guide, which I’ll talk about below.

Leicester Train Station

It might sound weird to talk about the train station as something to do, but when you’re in a place where you can utilize public transportation to get literally anywhere, I had to include it! We picked our Airbnb in part because it was within a 30 minute walk to the train station, and we knew we’d be using it pretty frequently to get around to London, Scotland, etc. The location really is perfect - it’s right in the center of the city, giving you super easy access to the shopping center, the university, and the smaller streets of Leicester, no matter which direction you head. Navigating the station is a piece of cake since it’s on the smaller side, and you can get train tickets to almost anywhere in England, plus Scotland & Wales. Traveling by train has quickly become my favorite way to get around, and it was super easy to do in Leicester when we ventured anywhere outside the city!

FOOD AND DRINK IN LEICESTER

Alright, here’s the part you’ve probably all been waiting for–the food! While the options available to us weren’t too different from back home in the States, it just felt better to eat. Like, I could taste the lack of preservatives compared to US food. And when I say there was no shortage of good food to eat wherever we went, I mean it! Almost everywhere you looked, you could find a great restaurant to try out. I put together an entire food guide detailing everything we ate in Leicester for six weeks, and you can read all about it here (after you look at the persuasive pictures of UK food below)!

MY TWO PENCE:

All in all, Leicester was a great spot for us - it fit our budget being our very first Airbnb abroad, and there was plenty to do all within walking distance. It was a much more low-key atmosphere than London, naturally, but it still allowed us to travel easily to bigger cities and countries within the UK.

Initially, we wanted to save as much money as possible on Airbnbs so we could take more side trips and do more activities wherever we were staying. We stuck with a tight budget for this booking, and had thought we’d stick to it with our following bookings in Italy, but we found ourselves needing to spend a bit more than we planned in order to be within walking distance of transportation in major cities. In hindsight, we could have spent the same amount of money we’ll be spending in Florence, Rome, etc. to just stay in London and have more of a variety of sightseeing, activities, restaurants, and nightlife.

However, for what we paid, it was totally worth it to stay in Leicester! We got a much more local vibe, saved some money, and had wonderful hosts who made us totally comfortable, were super friendly, and gave us awesome recommendations. We always got weird looks or questioned “why Leicester?” when Brits asked us where we were staying, but this city will always have a special place in my heart now that I’ve gotten to explore it for so long.

------------------------